Shock! Horror! Can you believe that many small businesses haven’t signed up for a Facebook page or Instagram account? Well parent company Meta have realised that running a small business takes time and many of the 200 million users of the WhatsApp Business app could be advertising on their other platforms but haven’t been able to do so as they haven’t signed up to them.
First up, 200 million WhatsApp Business users – that’s huge and a new milestone for the messaging app. Worth noting that it’s gaining traction.
So, the solution to advertising (and increasing revenues for Meta), is to allow WhatsApp Business users to simply advertise on Facebook and Instagram without having to create an account. It’s probably not right to think that small business owners aren’t on these platforms – they likely are along with billions of others, but with personal accounts and just haven’t gotten the time to create and maintain a business profile.
Now, so long as you have an email address and form of payment, small businesses that run their entire operation on WhatsApp to create, purchase and publish a Facebook or Instagram ad directly within the WhatsApp Business app. When people click on an ad, it opens a chat on WhatsApp so they can ask questions, browse products and make a purchase.
These ads are one of the most powerful ways to drive potential customers to message them on WhatsApp and this will open new opportunities for WhatsApp-only small businesses that need a simpler way to get started with advertising.
Even better, soon Meta will begin testing a new feature within the WhatsApp Business app where small businesses will have the option to send personalised messages to their customers – like appointment reminders, birthday greetings or even updates on a holiday sale – in a faster and more efficient way.
And it gets even better yet, rather than having to manually send the same message to multiple customers, this new feature will give businesses the ability to send personal messages with the customer’s name and customizable call-to-action buttons to specific customer lists such as those with a select label (like “VIP customers” or “new customers”), schedule the day and time the messages are sent and then see what’s working. Meta will offer this advanced, optional type of message for a fee in the WhatsApp Business app and will share more details in the future.
